Posted onDecember 2, 2017|Comments Off on Press Release: ‘Hans-Martien ten Napel to speak at conference on “Public Spirit and Public Virtue” in Washington, DC’

‘On December 6, 2017, Hans-Martien ten Napel will be speaking during a conference on “Public Spirit and Public Virtue,” in Washington, DC.

The conference aims to “examine the ways in which the Western world might see a revival of public spirit through public virtue and remain a civilization marked by ‘order and public tranquility’ that only this spirit and virtue can provide.”

Among the other speakers during the conference are:

John Wilsey, Associate Professor of History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and currently serving as the William G. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University;

The conference, which forms part of an International Conference series on “Reclaiming the West: Freedom and Responsibility,” is organized by the Acton Institute. The Acton Institute, named after the English historian Lord John Acton (1834-1902), “is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.”

Co-sponsors of the event are the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Just five of the speakers, making this such a very worthwhile event to attend:
– Russell Moore, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
– Daniel Mark, Chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
– Carrie Gress, author of the The Marian Option (2017) and Public Intellectual
– Elizabeth Bruenig, Editor at The Washington Post, essayist on religion and politics
– Michael Wear, author of Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America (2017)

This week I will be attending the 2017 Acton University Conference, at DeVos Place, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Acton University ‘is a unique, four-day exploration of the intellectual foundations of a free society. Guided by a distinguished, international faculty, Acton University is an opportunity to deepen your knowledge and integrate philosophy, theology, business, development – with sound, market based, economics.’

It is organized by the Acton Institute, ‘a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles’.

Topics dealt with include:

Thomas Jefferson v. Alexander Hamilton

The Inspiration of the Declaration: What Calvin Coolidge’s Views on Government and Faith Tell Us Today

John Locke’s Philosophy of Liberalism

Edmund Burke and the Origins of Modern Conservatism

Alexis de Tocqueville: Does Liberty Follow from Democracy?

Democracy and Development

Natural Law and Human Flourishing

“Post-Consensus” Culture and Natural Law

Religious Liberty: The Dawn of the First Amendment

The Religious Problem with Religious Freedom

Marriage and Religious Liberty

How to Understand and Critique Secularism

Presenters will be, among others:

Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation

Hunter Baker, J.D., Ph.D., University Fellow and Associate Professor of Political Science, Union University

The Honorable Judge Janice Rogers Brown, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Lenore Ealy, Ph.D., President, The Philanthropic Enterprise, Inc.

Kenneth Grasso, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Political Science, Texas State University

Carrie Gress, Ph.D., Author and Public Intellectual

Robert Joustra, Ph.D., Director of the Centre for Christian Scholarship, Redeemer University College

Daniel Mark, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Villanova University, and Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

Russell Moore, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

‘Introduction
Stichting De Honderd Gulden Reis was founded by the Reformed historian dr. G. Puchinger on 23 September 1996. Since his death in 1999, this Foundation has been governed by a board of trustees.

What can you apply for?
Grants for studies abroad (travel, study and/or accomodation expenses) by students or graduates of (art) history, the arts, law, theology or philosophy at one of the Dutch universities, hogeschool or similar institution. The grants are intended for those who have an affinity with the Protestant-Christian tradition or with studies that relate to Protestant Christianity.

Conditions

The Stichting only deals with a request if it satisfies each of the following four conditions:
1. The applicant receives an education at a Dutch university, or has done so and wants to broaden his/her horizon.
2. The applicant is a student or a graduate in (art) history, the arts, law, theology or philosophy.
3. The applicant and/or study deals with Protestant Christianity.
4. The study in question is offered outside the regular Bachelor or Master curriculum.

Who can apply?
Students or graduates in (art) history, the arts, law, theology or philosophy at a Dutch university or similar institution, in particular they who have an affinity with the Protestant-Christian tradition.

How to submit a request.
We would like to receive your application through email. In addition to your email and this request form, please enclose a budget estimate and a curriculum vitae. The extent to which you want to study Protestant Christianity and/or have affinity with the Protestant-Christian tradition must appear from the written motivation as submitted in the application form.’

Rev. Peter J. Gomes was Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister at Memorial Church when I was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University in 1992. I heard him preach again on Freshman Sunday in 1998.

According to the Harvard Gazette, ‘Gomes, an American Baptist minister, served in the Memorial Church since 1970. He was a member of both the Divinity School faculty and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. Gomes authored many books, including the best-sellers “The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart” and “Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living,” as well as numerous articles and papers.

Widely regarded as one of America’s leading preachers, Gomes participated in the inaugurations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He was named Clergy of the Year by the organization Religion in American Life in 1998; in 1979 Time magazine called him “one of the seven most distinguished preachers in America.” He received 39 honorary degrees and was an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.’

‘The LERU Deans of Theology and Religious Studies have written a statement on the importance of research on religion for Europe’s societies. The event aims at translating this statement into practice by showcasing excellent examples. The event is also meant to discuss the statement with a wider public. Policy makers, research funders or anyone with an interest in SSH research in general or religion research in particular, is very welcome to participate.

Programme

10.30 am Registration

11.00

Welcome by Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General of LERU

11.10

Introduction by Johannes Zachhuber, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, University of Oxford

11.30

Religious recognition, presentation by Risto Saarinen, Professor of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki

12.00

Religion in crisis and Roman Catholic self-definition, presentation by Joris Geldhof, Professor Pastoral and Empirical Theology, Mathijs Lamberigts, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and Terrence Merrigan, Professor Systematic Theology and the Study of Religions, KU Leuven

12.30

Lunch

1.00 pm

Healthcare Values Partnership, presentation by Andrew Papanikitas, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in General Practice, University of Oxford

1.30

Muslim-Christian dialogue, presentation by Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Inter-religious Studies and Assistant Principal Religion and Society, University of Edinburgh

‘Since its founding in 2002, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) has emerged as a prominent advocate for the promotion of basic research at European universities. LERU strongly believes that basic research plays an essential role in the innovation process and significantly contributes to the progress of society.

LERU aims at furthering the understanding and knowledge of politicians, policy makers and opinion leaders about the role and activities of research-intensive universities. Drawing on the impressive academic potential and expertise of its network, LERU has a strong and significant impact on research policy in Europe.’

Comments Off on Participant, event ‘Research on Religion, crucial for Europe’s societies’, Brussels, 17 March 2016

‘Does Christian faith have any impact in the workplace? Does it show in the way that people do their jobs? Should it be given more emphasis, or less? These are some of the questions to be addressed in the third Abraham Kuyper pre-conference symposium on April 15th and 16th 2015. This year, the Abraham Kuyper Center for Theology and Public Life is collaborating with two other organizations whose expertise in this area brings theory and practice into fruitful conversation. The ‘Faith and Work Initiative’ at Princeton University, led by Princeton Seminary graduate David Miller, investigates the ways in which the resources of various religious traditions and spiritual identities shape and inform engagement with diverse workplace issues. The Center for Faith and Work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church New York, headed by David Kim (also a Princeton Seminary graduate, who worked on Abraham Kuyper) seeks to equip individuals of all backgrounds to develop and apply a worldview for work that better serves their profession and industry. Staff from both organizations will make presentations aimed at opening up a wide-ranging discussion of an increasingly important theme for both church and industry.
The ‘Faith in the Workplace’ symposium is open, free of charge, both to participants in the annual Kuyper Conference that follows, and to all interested clergy and laity in the wider Princeton area, as well as students and faculty at Princeton Seminary. (…)
Wednesday 15th April
2pm Welcome and introduction
Dr Gordon Graham, Kuyper Center, PTS

2.15 – 4.45pm

Kuyper returns to NYC: Appropriating Kuyperian Theology to Empower the Scattered Church

Rev. David H. Kim and Bethany Jenkins
Center for Faith & Work
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York

Thursday 16th April
9.30am – 12noon

Faith & Work: Augustine, Maslow, Nixon, King, and Beyond

Dr David Miller, with Michael Thate and Dennis LoRusso
Faith and Work Initiative,
Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University’

About me

Hans-Martien ten Napel, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he is also Research Fellow of the Leiden Law School and Affiliated Member of the Center for the Study of Political Parties and Representation. In addition, he is a Member of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research. Before his transfer to the law faculty, he taught at a Department of Political Science and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA).

He teaches the Bachelor of Laws elective course on the Law of Democracy and a Master of Laws elective course on Comparative Constitutional Law and served as a coach on the extracurricular Leiden Leadership Programme. In addition, he is currently co-supervising three Ph.D. projects.

In 2014 he was awarded a Research Fellowship in Legal Studies at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ, which enabled him to be in full-time residence at CTI for the academic year 2014-2015. In 2017 he received a ‘seed money grant for frontier research’ from the Leiden profile area Interaction Between Legal Systems.

His work has appeared in European Constitutional Law Review, European Public Law, Journal of Interreligious Studies, Journal of Markets and Morality, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights and Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. He was also co-editor and co-author of two recent volumes, Regulating Political Parties: European Democracies in Comparative Perspective (2014) and The Powers That Be. Rethinking the Separation of Powers (2015).

Since 2015, he is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Religie, Recht en Beleid(Journal of Religion, Law, and Policy). In 2017, he published, as the fruit of his research fellowship, the monograph Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom. To Be Fully Human (Routledge).

Grateful to Dr. Stanley Carlson-Thies, the Founder and Senior Director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance (IRFA), for generously including my recent book on Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom, To Be Fully Human in this review of recent books on … Continue reading →

Pleased to announce that the editorial board of Routledge have decided to publish my book Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom. To Be Fully Human (2017) in paperback. They anticipate publication in March 2019. Preview PDF here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317236917?fbclid=IwAR0aiJiTnvOvWAv57HCS1vkwLAiNNTp1BU96knPp-GC4MGxh5P6DB82JzWw A Media Review … Continue reading →

I look forward to participating in the third session of the St. John’s Law School Center for Law and Religion’s Tradition Project, “The Value of Tradition in the Global Context,” in Rome this week. ‘December 12, 2018 9.00 – 13.00 … Continue reading →

‘Champaign, Ill., USA – 16 November 2018 – The Religion in Society Research Network is pleased to announce the selection of “The Significance of Communal Religious Freedom for Liberal Democracy,” Hans-Martien ten Napel, as the winner of the International Award … Continue reading →